Chapter One
AJW
Well-known member
A Tok'ra's Tale
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement - sadly all Stargate and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Amazon, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: This idea came to me after recently rewatching the Stargate SG-1 fifth season episodes Summit and Last Stand and seeing the fate of Lieutenant Elliot/Lantash and how the dying pair sacrificed themselves to save SG-1 and Jacob Carter/Selmac from the Goa'uld Zipacna's attack on Ravanna. It got me wondering what if they were revived and from there that plot bunny this story sprung. A quick reminder that conversation in bold represents a Goa'uld or Tok'ra speaking aloud while conversation in italics or bold italics represents a host and symbiote talking to one another. Okay not that that little reminder is out of the way, let's get cracking shall we.
---///---
Chapter One
Lieutenant Kevin Elliot gasped as life returned to his body.
Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself lying on a hard surface and surrounded by nothing but white light. Yet there was something about it that said that this light was in no way heavenly but was technological in origin. The fact that the surface underneath him felt metallic also indicated that wherever he was, whatever he was lying in was technological in origin. Where am I, he wondered, and how am I alive?
"I would think that would be obvious," a distorted voice said inside his head making him jump slightly before he realized who and what it was.
"Lantash?" he tentatively mentally asked back.
"Who else would it be?" the Tok'ra symbiote asked sounding amused. "As for where we are we're in a Goa'uld sarcophagus device."
"Huh. How did we get here? Not that I mind I kind of like being alive."
"Think for a few moments and I am sure you'll remember."
Kevin nodded to himself and did as the symbiote wrapped around his spinal cord said, focusing on what had happened to put him – or should he say them? – in here. After a few moments he remembered what had happened when, with the weapon containing the symbiote poison concealed on his person after Doctor Jackson had given it to him, he had allowed himself to be captured by the army of Jaffa that had attacked the Tok'ra base on Ravanna. The Jaffa had naturally brought him back to their encampment but must have called ahead as Zipacna had been waiting next to a tent that the Jaffa had set up to house a command post.
They had been taken inside and Goa'uld underlord had, seeing that they were both on the verge of dying from the injuries he'd sustained when part of the lab had collapsed on top of him during the Al'kesh bombing runs, had had them placed them in his sarcophagus. Before the doors had closed, he and Lantash had struck, pressing the button to activate the concealed symbiote poison weapon before with their last of their mutual strength throwing it out of the chamber. Then the doors had closed as everything had gone dark.
He had to wonder just what had happened outside while they had both been dead/asleep and being healed here in this thing. Had SG-1 managed to escape the planet? He hoped that they had though it did leave the question about what the hell he/they were going to do next. While he knew the Stargate address for Earth, he didn't have a GDO with him, and his radio had gotten wrecked during the attack on the base, so he would have no way of letting them know it was him and he had no desire to become sub molecular paste against the iris.
"We'll think of something," Lantash told him reassuringly, "if any of the landed ships are still here and still intact then we can always take one of them. I know of several probable locations of backup Tok'ra bases. We could always travel to one and contact Stargate Command from there."
"Sounds like a plan as long as there isn't an army of Jaffa between us and them."
"Good point."
It was at that moment that the white light around them dimmed and a crack appeared overhead. A crack that rapidly grew wider as with the usual stone-on-stone grinding sound that Goa'uld doors and hatches tended to produce the lid of the sarcophagus parted. Within seconds it was fully open and, bracing himself for what he might find fully expecting to see Jaffa pointing zat'nik'atel or ma'tok staffs at him, Kevin sat up.
To find he was still in the tent that the Jaffa had set up but now everything was completely quiet, all he could hear was the fabric walls rustling in the wind and the occasional cawing of birds outside. Beyond that there was no sight of sound of life. Carefully he stood up and looked around.
What he beheld in the tent was a scene of carnage. Lying next to the sarcophagus was Zipacna, features twisted into a final mask of shock, horror and the terror that must have gripped him as he succumbed to the symbiote poison. Several Jaffa lay lifeless on the floor nearby, their own expressions mirroring the Goa'uld's as they died, though there was even more pain locked on their faces as it would have taken them a bit longer to die than the Goa'uld – basically however long it took for the neural toxin from the prim'tah, dying in their abdominal pouches from the poison, to enter their nervous systems in sufficient amounts to kill.
"Sheesh now I know why chemical weapons are banned back on Earth," he muttered shivering at the sight of painful deaths. "This is horrific."
"It is," Lantash agreed, "unfortunately such things happen in wars."
"True. And I know it was either them or us but still…"
"Indeed."
Carefully Kevin climbed out of the sarcophagus – causing it to close behind him – and looked around. He was about to walk over to one of the Jaffa, to pick up a zat, only for a silent prompt from Lantash to take him back to Zipacna's body. At another silent prompt he squatted down and carefully took the kara'kesh from the Goa'uld's lifeless right hand and put it on himself. Then he carefully searched the body, finding a portable healing device in a leather pouch on Zipacna's right hip.
Before he stood back up, he reached out and closed the eyes of Zipacna's host and muttered a prayer for the soul of the poor person who had to have endured centuries if not millennia of enslavement to the Goa'uld. He consoled himself with the knowledge that the hosts soul would be in a better place now, where Zipacna couldn't hurt him anymore while the Goa'uld burned in hell forevermore.
"You still have religion on Earth then."
"Of course, we do. Many people are raised in one faith or another, I for example was raised as a Roman Catholic."
"Interesting. Jacob never spoke about religion on Earth."
"Probably never occurred to him. Religion is not as driving a force as it used to be plus church, and state have been separated since the days of the Founding Fathers."
"Seems I have quite a bit to learn about you Tau'ri."
"Just like I do about you Lantash."
"Indeed."
Walking over to one of the downed Jaffa Kevin picked up a discarded zat gun, before walking up to the entrance to the tent. He took a few deep breaths, knowing that what he was about to see was probably going to be horrific, before pushing the flaps open and stepping out…
…to see a sea of Jaffa bodies lying on the damp, dusty ground all killed by the dense cloud of poison that had to have spread as a wave of death from the tent. Here and there he could see birds – that looked vaguely like ravens – dropping down from the clouds and feeding on the lifeless bodies of the Jaffa. As much as he wanted to chase the avians away he knew it would be a futile battle, they would just come back.
Deciding to see if there was any sign that SG-1 had left he began making his way through the killing field to where the Stargate was located. As soon as he got there, he saw fresh footprints, with the characteristic patterns of those made by US military combat boots, heading up to the gate. Clearly SG-1 had left this planet after the Jaffa all dropped dead and the wind blew the cloud of poison away.
"Okay now what," he muttered.
"Check the ships. At least one of the Al'kesh should be fully ready for flight," Lantash suggested, "once we've decided on one, we should gather as many supplies as we can from the remains of the base. We'll need them as even the nearest of the possible fallback positions is several days in hyperspace from here."
Kevin nodded and headed for the nearest Al'kesh.
---///---
The next few hours passed as a hurricane of activity. The first Al'kesh he'd come across had been fully functional – albeit its bomb bay was empty having dropped all its plasma charges during the attack – and after carefully extracting the dead crew both host and symbiote had decided it would do for there escape from this planet of ghosts.
With that determination made they had begun the process of gathering supplies ready for their journey. First, they'd raided the other Al'kesh for any emergency supplies they carried, as well as spare parts such as control crystals for various systems, and then made a hike back to the mostly collapsed remains of the Tok'ra base. From which they'd extracted quite a bit of useful stuff, such as boxes of tunnelling crystals, a few portable power generators and supplies of food and drinking water.
By the time they had done that dusk had begun to fall and Kevin now found himself sitting in the pilot's seat of the Al'kesh not at all sure how to even fly the damned thing. Everything had been carefully stowed in the other compartments on the upper level of the ship now there was just the small problem of leaving.
"I can fly this ship," Lantash told him.
"Okay maybe you should have control then. Though will you teach me how to fly this thing?"
"Of course."
"Thanks."
He got the distinct impression of a friendly smile from Lantash then felt the curious sensation of the symbiote taking over control of his body. It wasn't jarring or anything, in fact it felt like his consciousness was gently picked up and moved to one side allowing Lantash to take his place in the driving seat so to speak. Okay this feels a bit weird, he thought wondering why he didn't remember the last few times Lantash had taken over but guessing it was probably due to the shock and trauma of the injuries he had sustained at the time.
With nothing else to do he watched carefully, and listened intently to Lantash thoughts, as the Tok'ra brought the ship fully online and powered up the engines.
---///---
Lantash carefully checked all the readings as the Al'kesh computer relayed information straight into his mind through the control globe. All systems on the bomber were working properly and sublight engines were fully online though it would be another two or three minutes before the hyperdrive finished powering up. Not that he would engage it inside the atmosphere unless he had to as doing that could be somewhat dangerous, especially with such a simple hyperdrive as what was on an Al'kesh.
Bringing the antigravity wave generator online he raised the Al'kesh until it was floating several dozen meters in the air over the site of the former encampment. Quickly he accessed the weapons system and aimed the turret at the nearest Al'kesh with any plasma charges still in its bay and fired three times, punching through the hull and starting a massive fire inside the craft. In another few minutes the plasma charges within would cook off and the entire vessel would explode, triggering a fire that would completely consume the encampment and the bodies lying where they had fallen under the poisons attack.
As the other Al'kesh began burning fiercely he engaged the main sublight drives and the ship shot towards the heavens. The surface receding behind them at hypersonic speeds as they quickly passed this planet escape velocity. Outside the viewport the sky rapidly darkened before giving way to the star-studded blackness of space…
…and the sight of four Goa'uld motherships in orbit.
Two of the motherships bore the markings of Zipacna but the other two had no markings whatsoever. Matter streams kept travelling between the unmarked ships and Zipacna's transporting replacement Jaffa crews onto the vessels. Deciding to err on the side of caution he reached for the crystal that would engage the Al'kesh cloaking device.
However, before he could press it the threat board came alive with warnings. Both new motherships had seen him and were powering up their weapons systems. A swarm of gliders and Al'kesh was also converging on his position. Knowing the cloak would do no good – not against these numbers as the Goa'uld and Jaffa could afford to fire blind and have a very good chance of hitting him even if cloaked – he instead diverted the power to the shields and hyperdrive.
Then he began to fly for both their lives.
And not a moment too soon as a bolt of golden plasma energy was fired his way by one of the motherships. He evaded it with relative ease and set the turret to automatic target and firing while taking evasive action as all four motherships began firing streams of plasmatic death at him, the Jaffa crews aboard determined to avenge Zipacna and the Jaffa who had died on the planet below. The gliders and Al'kesh joining in turning space around into a storm of crisscrossing energy blasts. A storm that it was impossible to fully evade as almost immediately a bolt hit the shields making the ship shake fiercely.
Another bolt followed, and another, no matter which way he turned and banked. No matter what move he attempted the enemy Jaffa boxed him in with their seemingly endless deluge of plasma fire. Within moments shield corrosion warnings began to appear on the HUD reporting that the shields were down to thirty percent capacity and would soon fail.
Thankfully the hyperdrive choose that moment to come online.
Without hesitation he stabilized his course for hyperspace entry and engaged the drive. A hyperspace rift opening immediately ahead of him, its glowing maw offering the promise of safety and sanctuary from the Goa'uld attack. He immediately directed the Al'kesh towards the subspace rift…
… only the attacking Jaffa were not content to let him/them get away from them so easily. All four motherships and the small craft unleashed another devastating barrage of plasma…
…that caught the Al'kesh just as it entered the influence of the hyperspace window.
Instead of immediately obliterating what was left of the vessels shields and turning the entire craft into a fireball the plasma bolts broke apart as they encountered the powerful subspace field begin generated by the hyperdrive. Instantly they transformed into a crackling blizzard of energy that massively overloaded both the hyperdrive on the Al'kesh and the vortex into hyperspace it was generating.
The effect on the Al'kesh was dramatic as it was suddenly accelerated to speeds that were beyond even those attainable by Asgard vessels. Speeds that in an instant catapulted it, and the unconscious Tok'ra aboard, clear of the galaxy that they had always known. Catapulted it even far beyond the borders of known space…
…deep into the unknown.
---///---
Goa'uld Mothership
Ravanna Orbit
"Lord Thoth the Tok'ra vessel has escaped."
Sitting on his pel'tac throne Thoth scowled at the report from his First Prime. He had not appreciated being called away from his work on the new warriors on Tartarus to come here to the site of a now-former Tok'ra Base to clean up Zipacna's mess. Unfortunately, he had had no choice but to do so as Lord Anubis was not someone that you could say no to, not if valued both your life and your very sanity.
"So, I see," he replied, incensed that someone – almost certainly a Tok'ra survivor – had managed to steal an Al'kesh and escape Ravanna. "Have you been able to track its course?"
"I am afraid not my lord. The Al'kesh was moving many thousands of times faster than it should have been capable of, my guess is our weapons fire somehow supercharged the hyperspace window. It was going far too fast for us to extrapolate any sort of course beyond heading out into intergalactic space."
"I see well that takes care of whichever Tok'ra stole the craft," Thoth commented before looking intrigued wondering if this event could yield some clues for how to increase the speed of their own hyperdrives. Lord Anubis would certainly reward him quite handsomely if it did. "Have all our sensor data of the event from the moment the plasma blasts impacted the hyperspace window to the Al'kesh leaving our sensor range to my personal laboratory."
"Yes, my lord," the Jaffa acknowledged a moment before the sensors chirped a warning. "My lord sensors just detected a large plasma detonation on the surface."
"Source?"
"One of the Al'kesh in the staging area near the Stargate my lord. From the size of the blast the computer estimates that at least three plasma charges exploded simultaneously. The whole area around the gate is now burning. Sensors are now detecting class three seismic disturbances near the remains of the Tok'ra base, it is likely that the shockwave from the blast has caused the already compromised crystal tunnels to begin collapsing in upon themselves."
"Likely," Thoth agreed, "how long until the other two Ha'tak are ready to depart?"
"They are ready now my lord."
"Very well. Recall all gliders and Al'kesh then have all ships set a course for Tartarus and engage their hyperdrives."
"Yes, my lord."
---///---
Elsewhere
A Few Hours Later
Space at the outer edge of a binary system – just outside the systems Oort Cloud which marked the end of any star's system and the beginning of interstellar space – shivered as the barrier between normal space-time and the infinite realms of subspace came under sudden, massive attack from within. The quantum folds of space-time parted and a vortex of energy unlike anything ever seen in this galaxy opened with a silent scream of unfathomable power. The rift pulsed once and a small object, travelling at a considerable percentage of the speed of light, shot forth like a shell fired from some gigantic celestial cannon.
Behind the vessel the hyperspace window folded closed, leaving no sign that it had never been present at all leaving the Al'kesh streaking deeper into the system at dangerously high speed. But not for long as the crafts navigational computer automatically engaged the sublight engines and began fighting the massively amplified hyperspace inertial forces. For several minutes the Al'kesh continued flying into the system at a dangerously high rate of speed before finally beginning to slow and coming to a stop.
Now stationary the vessel hung silent, seemingly dead in space.
---///---
Kevin Elliot groaned as consciousness returned and he found himself lying flat on the deck. Ugh what the hell happened, he thought as he opened his eyes to find the cockpit filled with a faint haze of smoke. Smoke that stunk of overheated and burned-out control crystals. Awkwardly he stood up, swaying drunkenly before staggering back to the pilot's seat and sitting down.
"Lantash are you there," he asked.
"Yes, I am. What in Egeria's name just happened?"
"No idea. Last thing I remember was something hitting us as we entered the hyperspace window, we were knocked flying and then nothing 'till we woke up here."
"Goa'uld weapons fire must have caught us just as we transitioned into hyperspace. Access the flight data records it should tell us."
"How do I do that?" Kevin asked a moment before the information suddenly came into his awareness being pushed his way so to speak by Lantash. Trusting the symbiote he reached out and touched a couple of different coloured crystalline controls in a very specific pattern. The holographic HUD appeared, flickering fitfully for a few moments before stabilizing bringing up the requested flight records. When he saw the speed with which they had been travelling he blinked in astonishment. Simultaneously he felt an odd sensation at the back of his neck and realized that Lantash had just shivered, his own astonishment coming through to him seconds later. The reason was obvious they had been travelling over a billion times faster than the hyperdrive was capable of.
"How the hell weren't we torn apart by the inertial forces," he wondered.
"I don't know," Lantash admitted, "press the red crystal next to the two blue crystals. That will bring up a damage assessment."
Kevin did as he was instructed pressing the indicated crystal. Immediately the HUD changed bringing in a report on the state of the ship. It was bad but it could have been worse. The shields were down, the matrix completely depleted though it was repairable, sublight was working but the hyperdrive was completely offline – diagnostics indicating that both the primary and secondary control circuits were fused. The hull was thankfully intact though life support was barely functioning due to the primary control circuits being fused.
"Could be worse," Lantash replied, "we've got enough spare control crystals to repair all the damaged systems. Though the question also becomes where are we? Let me have control a minute please."
"Sure."
Again, Kevin felt the odd sensation of his consciousness being lifted out of the way and replaced by Lantash. He watched with interest as Lantash accessed the sensors and began running a scan of the system and the region of space immediately around them. Within seconds the navigational computer gave a devastating report, none of the star patterns around them were familiar wherever they were it was so far of the beaten interstellar track that it wasn't even funny.
Thankfully there was a habitable planet deeper within the system. Its environmental conditions were hot, very similar to Abydos was back home, but it at least had an oxy-nitrogen atmosphere. There was a small number of ships of unfamiliar design and construction in orbit though the power signatures were, at least at this range, lower than those of naquada powered ships. Certainly, there were no sign of any warships. While a not particularly habitable world it would be a good place to land and make repairs.
"If we go there, we should cloak before we head in system," he advised the symbiote, "we have no idea where we are, or going on how fast we were travelling if we're even in our own galaxy anymore."
"Good idea," Lantash agreed before giving the command to the computer to engage the cloaking device. After a moment a light lit up on the console indicated that the cloaking device was active and functioning normally pushing the ship slightly out of sync with normal space-time. Satisfied that everything was working properly he engaged the sublight engines and began heading in system towards the unknown desert world, where they would hopefully be able to land, do their needed repairs and then figure out just what the hell they were going to do next.
---///---
Authors Note: Well, this first chapter bites the dust I hope you all enjoyed it. I think its pretty obvious which planet that Elliot and Lantash are approaching is Tatooine, though when are they in the Star Wars timeline you will have to wait and see. Updates for this particular story are going to be few and far between but this idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to write it out. Until next time.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement - sadly all Stargate and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Amazon, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: This idea came to me after recently rewatching the Stargate SG-1 fifth season episodes Summit and Last Stand and seeing the fate of Lieutenant Elliot/Lantash and how the dying pair sacrificed themselves to save SG-1 and Jacob Carter/Selmac from the Goa'uld Zipacna's attack on Ravanna. It got me wondering what if they were revived and from there that plot bunny this story sprung. A quick reminder that conversation in bold represents a Goa'uld or Tok'ra speaking aloud while conversation in italics or bold italics represents a host and symbiote talking to one another. Okay not that that little reminder is out of the way, let's get cracking shall we.
---///---
Chapter One
Lieutenant Kevin Elliot gasped as life returned to his body.
Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself lying on a hard surface and surrounded by nothing but white light. Yet there was something about it that said that this light was in no way heavenly but was technological in origin. The fact that the surface underneath him felt metallic also indicated that wherever he was, whatever he was lying in was technological in origin. Where am I, he wondered, and how am I alive?
"I would think that would be obvious," a distorted voice said inside his head making him jump slightly before he realized who and what it was.
"Lantash?" he tentatively mentally asked back.
"Who else would it be?" the Tok'ra symbiote asked sounding amused. "As for where we are we're in a Goa'uld sarcophagus device."
"Huh. How did we get here? Not that I mind I kind of like being alive."
"Think for a few moments and I am sure you'll remember."
Kevin nodded to himself and did as the symbiote wrapped around his spinal cord said, focusing on what had happened to put him – or should he say them? – in here. After a few moments he remembered what had happened when, with the weapon containing the symbiote poison concealed on his person after Doctor Jackson had given it to him, he had allowed himself to be captured by the army of Jaffa that had attacked the Tok'ra base on Ravanna. The Jaffa had naturally brought him back to their encampment but must have called ahead as Zipacna had been waiting next to a tent that the Jaffa had set up to house a command post.
They had been taken inside and Goa'uld underlord had, seeing that they were both on the verge of dying from the injuries he'd sustained when part of the lab had collapsed on top of him during the Al'kesh bombing runs, had had them placed them in his sarcophagus. Before the doors had closed, he and Lantash had struck, pressing the button to activate the concealed symbiote poison weapon before with their last of their mutual strength throwing it out of the chamber. Then the doors had closed as everything had gone dark.
He had to wonder just what had happened outside while they had both been dead/asleep and being healed here in this thing. Had SG-1 managed to escape the planet? He hoped that they had though it did leave the question about what the hell he/they were going to do next. While he knew the Stargate address for Earth, he didn't have a GDO with him, and his radio had gotten wrecked during the attack on the base, so he would have no way of letting them know it was him and he had no desire to become sub molecular paste against the iris.
"We'll think of something," Lantash told him reassuringly, "if any of the landed ships are still here and still intact then we can always take one of them. I know of several probable locations of backup Tok'ra bases. We could always travel to one and contact Stargate Command from there."
"Sounds like a plan as long as there isn't an army of Jaffa between us and them."
"Good point."
It was at that moment that the white light around them dimmed and a crack appeared overhead. A crack that rapidly grew wider as with the usual stone-on-stone grinding sound that Goa'uld doors and hatches tended to produce the lid of the sarcophagus parted. Within seconds it was fully open and, bracing himself for what he might find fully expecting to see Jaffa pointing zat'nik'atel or ma'tok staffs at him, Kevin sat up.
To find he was still in the tent that the Jaffa had set up but now everything was completely quiet, all he could hear was the fabric walls rustling in the wind and the occasional cawing of birds outside. Beyond that there was no sight of sound of life. Carefully he stood up and looked around.
What he beheld in the tent was a scene of carnage. Lying next to the sarcophagus was Zipacna, features twisted into a final mask of shock, horror and the terror that must have gripped him as he succumbed to the symbiote poison. Several Jaffa lay lifeless on the floor nearby, their own expressions mirroring the Goa'uld's as they died, though there was even more pain locked on their faces as it would have taken them a bit longer to die than the Goa'uld – basically however long it took for the neural toxin from the prim'tah, dying in their abdominal pouches from the poison, to enter their nervous systems in sufficient amounts to kill.
"Sheesh now I know why chemical weapons are banned back on Earth," he muttered shivering at the sight of painful deaths. "This is horrific."
"It is," Lantash agreed, "unfortunately such things happen in wars."
"True. And I know it was either them or us but still…"
"Indeed."
Carefully Kevin climbed out of the sarcophagus – causing it to close behind him – and looked around. He was about to walk over to one of the Jaffa, to pick up a zat, only for a silent prompt from Lantash to take him back to Zipacna's body. At another silent prompt he squatted down and carefully took the kara'kesh from the Goa'uld's lifeless right hand and put it on himself. Then he carefully searched the body, finding a portable healing device in a leather pouch on Zipacna's right hip.
Before he stood back up, he reached out and closed the eyes of Zipacna's host and muttered a prayer for the soul of the poor person who had to have endured centuries if not millennia of enslavement to the Goa'uld. He consoled himself with the knowledge that the hosts soul would be in a better place now, where Zipacna couldn't hurt him anymore while the Goa'uld burned in hell forevermore.
"You still have religion on Earth then."
"Of course, we do. Many people are raised in one faith or another, I for example was raised as a Roman Catholic."
"Interesting. Jacob never spoke about religion on Earth."
"Probably never occurred to him. Religion is not as driving a force as it used to be plus church, and state have been separated since the days of the Founding Fathers."
"Seems I have quite a bit to learn about you Tau'ri."
"Just like I do about you Lantash."
"Indeed."
Walking over to one of the downed Jaffa Kevin picked up a discarded zat gun, before walking up to the entrance to the tent. He took a few deep breaths, knowing that what he was about to see was probably going to be horrific, before pushing the flaps open and stepping out…
…to see a sea of Jaffa bodies lying on the damp, dusty ground all killed by the dense cloud of poison that had to have spread as a wave of death from the tent. Here and there he could see birds – that looked vaguely like ravens – dropping down from the clouds and feeding on the lifeless bodies of the Jaffa. As much as he wanted to chase the avians away he knew it would be a futile battle, they would just come back.
Deciding to see if there was any sign that SG-1 had left he began making his way through the killing field to where the Stargate was located. As soon as he got there, he saw fresh footprints, with the characteristic patterns of those made by US military combat boots, heading up to the gate. Clearly SG-1 had left this planet after the Jaffa all dropped dead and the wind blew the cloud of poison away.
"Okay now what," he muttered.
"Check the ships. At least one of the Al'kesh should be fully ready for flight," Lantash suggested, "once we've decided on one, we should gather as many supplies as we can from the remains of the base. We'll need them as even the nearest of the possible fallback positions is several days in hyperspace from here."
Kevin nodded and headed for the nearest Al'kesh.
---///---
The next few hours passed as a hurricane of activity. The first Al'kesh he'd come across had been fully functional – albeit its bomb bay was empty having dropped all its plasma charges during the attack – and after carefully extracting the dead crew both host and symbiote had decided it would do for there escape from this planet of ghosts.
With that determination made they had begun the process of gathering supplies ready for their journey. First, they'd raided the other Al'kesh for any emergency supplies they carried, as well as spare parts such as control crystals for various systems, and then made a hike back to the mostly collapsed remains of the Tok'ra base. From which they'd extracted quite a bit of useful stuff, such as boxes of tunnelling crystals, a few portable power generators and supplies of food and drinking water.
By the time they had done that dusk had begun to fall and Kevin now found himself sitting in the pilot's seat of the Al'kesh not at all sure how to even fly the damned thing. Everything had been carefully stowed in the other compartments on the upper level of the ship now there was just the small problem of leaving.
"I can fly this ship," Lantash told him.
"Okay maybe you should have control then. Though will you teach me how to fly this thing?"
"Of course."
"Thanks."
He got the distinct impression of a friendly smile from Lantash then felt the curious sensation of the symbiote taking over control of his body. It wasn't jarring or anything, in fact it felt like his consciousness was gently picked up and moved to one side allowing Lantash to take his place in the driving seat so to speak. Okay this feels a bit weird, he thought wondering why he didn't remember the last few times Lantash had taken over but guessing it was probably due to the shock and trauma of the injuries he had sustained at the time.
With nothing else to do he watched carefully, and listened intently to Lantash thoughts, as the Tok'ra brought the ship fully online and powered up the engines.
---///---
Lantash carefully checked all the readings as the Al'kesh computer relayed information straight into his mind through the control globe. All systems on the bomber were working properly and sublight engines were fully online though it would be another two or three minutes before the hyperdrive finished powering up. Not that he would engage it inside the atmosphere unless he had to as doing that could be somewhat dangerous, especially with such a simple hyperdrive as what was on an Al'kesh.
Bringing the antigravity wave generator online he raised the Al'kesh until it was floating several dozen meters in the air over the site of the former encampment. Quickly he accessed the weapons system and aimed the turret at the nearest Al'kesh with any plasma charges still in its bay and fired three times, punching through the hull and starting a massive fire inside the craft. In another few minutes the plasma charges within would cook off and the entire vessel would explode, triggering a fire that would completely consume the encampment and the bodies lying where they had fallen under the poisons attack.
As the other Al'kesh began burning fiercely he engaged the main sublight drives and the ship shot towards the heavens. The surface receding behind them at hypersonic speeds as they quickly passed this planet escape velocity. Outside the viewport the sky rapidly darkened before giving way to the star-studded blackness of space…
…and the sight of four Goa'uld motherships in orbit.
Two of the motherships bore the markings of Zipacna but the other two had no markings whatsoever. Matter streams kept travelling between the unmarked ships and Zipacna's transporting replacement Jaffa crews onto the vessels. Deciding to err on the side of caution he reached for the crystal that would engage the Al'kesh cloaking device.
However, before he could press it the threat board came alive with warnings. Both new motherships had seen him and were powering up their weapons systems. A swarm of gliders and Al'kesh was also converging on his position. Knowing the cloak would do no good – not against these numbers as the Goa'uld and Jaffa could afford to fire blind and have a very good chance of hitting him even if cloaked – he instead diverted the power to the shields and hyperdrive.
Then he began to fly for both their lives.
And not a moment too soon as a bolt of golden plasma energy was fired his way by one of the motherships. He evaded it with relative ease and set the turret to automatic target and firing while taking evasive action as all four motherships began firing streams of plasmatic death at him, the Jaffa crews aboard determined to avenge Zipacna and the Jaffa who had died on the planet below. The gliders and Al'kesh joining in turning space around into a storm of crisscrossing energy blasts. A storm that it was impossible to fully evade as almost immediately a bolt hit the shields making the ship shake fiercely.
Another bolt followed, and another, no matter which way he turned and banked. No matter what move he attempted the enemy Jaffa boxed him in with their seemingly endless deluge of plasma fire. Within moments shield corrosion warnings began to appear on the HUD reporting that the shields were down to thirty percent capacity and would soon fail.
Thankfully the hyperdrive choose that moment to come online.
Without hesitation he stabilized his course for hyperspace entry and engaged the drive. A hyperspace rift opening immediately ahead of him, its glowing maw offering the promise of safety and sanctuary from the Goa'uld attack. He immediately directed the Al'kesh towards the subspace rift…
… only the attacking Jaffa were not content to let him/them get away from them so easily. All four motherships and the small craft unleashed another devastating barrage of plasma…
…that caught the Al'kesh just as it entered the influence of the hyperspace window.
Instead of immediately obliterating what was left of the vessels shields and turning the entire craft into a fireball the plasma bolts broke apart as they encountered the powerful subspace field begin generated by the hyperdrive. Instantly they transformed into a crackling blizzard of energy that massively overloaded both the hyperdrive on the Al'kesh and the vortex into hyperspace it was generating.
The effect on the Al'kesh was dramatic as it was suddenly accelerated to speeds that were beyond even those attainable by Asgard vessels. Speeds that in an instant catapulted it, and the unconscious Tok'ra aboard, clear of the galaxy that they had always known. Catapulted it even far beyond the borders of known space…
…deep into the unknown.
---///---
Goa'uld Mothership
Ravanna Orbit
"Lord Thoth the Tok'ra vessel has escaped."
Sitting on his pel'tac throne Thoth scowled at the report from his First Prime. He had not appreciated being called away from his work on the new warriors on Tartarus to come here to the site of a now-former Tok'ra Base to clean up Zipacna's mess. Unfortunately, he had had no choice but to do so as Lord Anubis was not someone that you could say no to, not if valued both your life and your very sanity.
"So, I see," he replied, incensed that someone – almost certainly a Tok'ra survivor – had managed to steal an Al'kesh and escape Ravanna. "Have you been able to track its course?"
"I am afraid not my lord. The Al'kesh was moving many thousands of times faster than it should have been capable of, my guess is our weapons fire somehow supercharged the hyperspace window. It was going far too fast for us to extrapolate any sort of course beyond heading out into intergalactic space."
"I see well that takes care of whichever Tok'ra stole the craft," Thoth commented before looking intrigued wondering if this event could yield some clues for how to increase the speed of their own hyperdrives. Lord Anubis would certainly reward him quite handsomely if it did. "Have all our sensor data of the event from the moment the plasma blasts impacted the hyperspace window to the Al'kesh leaving our sensor range to my personal laboratory."
"Yes, my lord," the Jaffa acknowledged a moment before the sensors chirped a warning. "My lord sensors just detected a large plasma detonation on the surface."
"Source?"
"One of the Al'kesh in the staging area near the Stargate my lord. From the size of the blast the computer estimates that at least three plasma charges exploded simultaneously. The whole area around the gate is now burning. Sensors are now detecting class three seismic disturbances near the remains of the Tok'ra base, it is likely that the shockwave from the blast has caused the already compromised crystal tunnels to begin collapsing in upon themselves."
"Likely," Thoth agreed, "how long until the other two Ha'tak are ready to depart?"
"They are ready now my lord."
"Very well. Recall all gliders and Al'kesh then have all ships set a course for Tartarus and engage their hyperdrives."
"Yes, my lord."
---///---
Elsewhere
A Few Hours Later
Space at the outer edge of a binary system – just outside the systems Oort Cloud which marked the end of any star's system and the beginning of interstellar space – shivered as the barrier between normal space-time and the infinite realms of subspace came under sudden, massive attack from within. The quantum folds of space-time parted and a vortex of energy unlike anything ever seen in this galaxy opened with a silent scream of unfathomable power. The rift pulsed once and a small object, travelling at a considerable percentage of the speed of light, shot forth like a shell fired from some gigantic celestial cannon.
Behind the vessel the hyperspace window folded closed, leaving no sign that it had never been present at all leaving the Al'kesh streaking deeper into the system at dangerously high speed. But not for long as the crafts navigational computer automatically engaged the sublight engines and began fighting the massively amplified hyperspace inertial forces. For several minutes the Al'kesh continued flying into the system at a dangerously high rate of speed before finally beginning to slow and coming to a stop.
Now stationary the vessel hung silent, seemingly dead in space.
---///---
Kevin Elliot groaned as consciousness returned and he found himself lying flat on the deck. Ugh what the hell happened, he thought as he opened his eyes to find the cockpit filled with a faint haze of smoke. Smoke that stunk of overheated and burned-out control crystals. Awkwardly he stood up, swaying drunkenly before staggering back to the pilot's seat and sitting down.
"Lantash are you there," he asked.
"Yes, I am. What in Egeria's name just happened?"
"No idea. Last thing I remember was something hitting us as we entered the hyperspace window, we were knocked flying and then nothing 'till we woke up here."
"Goa'uld weapons fire must have caught us just as we transitioned into hyperspace. Access the flight data records it should tell us."
"How do I do that?" Kevin asked a moment before the information suddenly came into his awareness being pushed his way so to speak by Lantash. Trusting the symbiote he reached out and touched a couple of different coloured crystalline controls in a very specific pattern. The holographic HUD appeared, flickering fitfully for a few moments before stabilizing bringing up the requested flight records. When he saw the speed with which they had been travelling he blinked in astonishment. Simultaneously he felt an odd sensation at the back of his neck and realized that Lantash had just shivered, his own astonishment coming through to him seconds later. The reason was obvious they had been travelling over a billion times faster than the hyperdrive was capable of.
"How the hell weren't we torn apart by the inertial forces," he wondered.
"I don't know," Lantash admitted, "press the red crystal next to the two blue crystals. That will bring up a damage assessment."
Kevin did as he was instructed pressing the indicated crystal. Immediately the HUD changed bringing in a report on the state of the ship. It was bad but it could have been worse. The shields were down, the matrix completely depleted though it was repairable, sublight was working but the hyperdrive was completely offline – diagnostics indicating that both the primary and secondary control circuits were fused. The hull was thankfully intact though life support was barely functioning due to the primary control circuits being fused.
"Could be worse," Lantash replied, "we've got enough spare control crystals to repair all the damaged systems. Though the question also becomes where are we? Let me have control a minute please."
"Sure."
Again, Kevin felt the odd sensation of his consciousness being lifted out of the way and replaced by Lantash. He watched with interest as Lantash accessed the sensors and began running a scan of the system and the region of space immediately around them. Within seconds the navigational computer gave a devastating report, none of the star patterns around them were familiar wherever they were it was so far of the beaten interstellar track that it wasn't even funny.
Thankfully there was a habitable planet deeper within the system. Its environmental conditions were hot, very similar to Abydos was back home, but it at least had an oxy-nitrogen atmosphere. There was a small number of ships of unfamiliar design and construction in orbit though the power signatures were, at least at this range, lower than those of naquada powered ships. Certainly, there were no sign of any warships. While a not particularly habitable world it would be a good place to land and make repairs.
"If we go there, we should cloak before we head in system," he advised the symbiote, "we have no idea where we are, or going on how fast we were travelling if we're even in our own galaxy anymore."
"Good idea," Lantash agreed before giving the command to the computer to engage the cloaking device. After a moment a light lit up on the console indicated that the cloaking device was active and functioning normally pushing the ship slightly out of sync with normal space-time. Satisfied that everything was working properly he engaged the sublight engines and began heading in system towards the unknown desert world, where they would hopefully be able to land, do their needed repairs and then figure out just what the hell they were going to do next.
---///---
Authors Note: Well, this first chapter bites the dust I hope you all enjoyed it. I think its pretty obvious which planet that Elliot and Lantash are approaching is Tatooine, though when are they in the Star Wars timeline you will have to wait and see. Updates for this particular story are going to be few and far between but this idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to write it out. Until next time.
Last edited:
